DRUG TO DETOXIFY ADDICTS MAY BE IN U.S. BY 2005

A drug used in Britain to detoxify heroin addicts and other opiate abusers
may be coming to the U.S. in the next few years.

Britannia Pharmaceuticals Ltd. said it has licensed U.S. rights for the
drug , called lofexidine, to US WorldMeds LLC, a closely held company in
Louisville, Ky. P. Breckinridge Jones, the chief executive of US WorldMeds,
said his company plans to conduct a large trial of lofexidine early next
year and aims to get Food and Drug Administration approval to sell the drug
by the end of 2005.

If the non-addictive lofexidine comes to the U.S. it would add to a slowly
growing list of pharmaceuticals available to treat addiction. In October
2002, the FDA approved buprenorphine, a drug designed to eliminate the
cravings felt by people addicted to heroin or other opiates, such as the
painkiller OxyContin.

The issue of opiate addiction made news recently when radio talk-show host
Rush Limbaugh disclosed his dependence on painkillers and checked into a
treatment center.

Lofexidine is used in about 20,000 detoxifications a year in Britain to
treat withdrawal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. It is designed to
help addicts get through the early days of their detoxification, when these
symptoms prompt many to return to drug use. However, the drug doesn't help
patients' insomnia so they generally need additional medication.

"We are hoping that the success in the U.K. will be replicated in the
U.S.," said Max Noble, Britannia Pharmaceuticals' managing director. The
company is a subsidiary of Britain's Forum Bioscience, which in turn is
75%-owned by Japanese food company Ajinomoto Co.

In 1995, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse asked Britannia to bring
lofexidine to the U.S., Mr. Noble said. The institute helped finance
several trials of the drug in the U.S. including one that was stopped ahead
of schedule in April 2002 because of significant evidence that lofexidine
was superior to a placebo.

Herbert Kleber, a substance-abuse expert at Columbia University who serves
as a scientific adviser to US WorldMeds, said the hypertension drug
clonidine is used in detoxification but lofexidine is often better because
it has fewer side effects. "The more agents that are available, the better
we can treat addiction," Dr. Kleber said.